NEWS AND OPINION:
Presidential rivals have telling numbers beyond polls. Consider that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s campaign spent $51 million on TV and radio ads last month, while her GOP counterpart Donald Trump spent nothing according to Ad Age. But wait. He still managed to garner 72 percent of the broadcast coverage says a new analysis from the Media Research Center. Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton has seven times as many people on her campaign staff as Mr. Trump, her team operating from an 80,000 square-foot office in Brooklyn.
“Trump’s campaign employs a core team of about a dozen people; his campaign lists 94 people on the payroll nationwide, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filing. Hillary Clinton has 765. Trump has no pollsters, no media coaches, or speech writers. He focus-groups nothing. He buys few ads, and when he does, he likes to write them himself. He also writes his own tweets, his main vehicle for communicating with his supporters. And it was his idea to adopt Ronald Reagan’s slogan ’make America great again,’” writes New York Magazine national affairs editor Gabriel Sherman, who recently visited the candidate at his Manhattan campaign headquarters to find them scarcely as big as a campus newspaper office.
“I’m the strategist,” Mr. Trump told the writer.
“Which would make him, no matter what your feelings about his beliefs or qualifications to run a country, one of the greatest political savants of the modern era,” Mr. Sherman observes.
ABSENT FROM THE BADGER STATE
Only one presidential hopeful appears to be actually in Wisconsin as the results roll in for the state’s all-important primary. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz will stage an election night watch party at the American Serb Hall in Milwaukee. Donald Trump hosted three rallies in Wisconsin on Monday, but has nothing public planned for Tuesday. Yet. That is subject to change. Gov. John Kasich is busy campaigning in New York state, as is Hillary Clinton, who stages a “Women for Hillary” town hall in Brooklyn. Sen. Bernard Sanders is the most far-flung of all: He will be in Laramie, Wyoming for a giant rally as the primary unfolds.
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Check C-SPAN for the final results beginning at 9 p.m. ET.
THE LION’S LEGACY
Many still ponder the untimely passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. A new book offers insight: “Scalia’s Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents” — edited by Kevin Ring, former counsel to the U.S. Senate’s Constitution Subcommittee — provides a collection of Scalia’s most memorable opinions on free speech, separation of powers, race, religious freedom, the rights of the accused, abortion, and more. These are Scalia’s own words plus significant analysis of his legal reasoning and his lasting impact on American jurisprudence.
Published Monday by Regnery, “Scalia’s Court” is a definitive guide to “the lion of American law” and his legacy as a constitutional patriot. “I don’t worry about my legacy,” Scalia once told an audience at the National Archives. “Just do your job right, and who cares?”
ABOUT THAT MUSLIM BAN
Republicans appear to be standing by presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States until the federal government improves its screening protocols for new arrivals. A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds that 67 percent of likely GOP voters favor the ban, compared to 45 percent of all voters and 50 percent of independents. Among Democrats, only 27 percent side with Mr. Trump.
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Still, a majority of all voters — 54 percent — say it’s “too easy” for the foreign-born to enter the U.S.; 73 percent of Republicans, 54 percent of independents and 35 percent of Democrats agree.
NOW THERE’S THOUGHT
“Whoever occupies the Oval Office in 2017 will face security threats around the world — including in Asia. Stability in Asia is currently being threatened by North Korea’s growing military capabilities, China’s increasingly aggressive behavior, historical animosities, and rising nationalism,” advises Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, and a former member of the intelligence community.
“Withdrawing from the world and raising the isolationist drawbridge didn’t work in the 1930s and wouldn’t work today. Instead, the next U.S. president needs to rebuild the strength of the U.S. military, affirm American commitment to defending our allies, and deter opponents’ attempts at intimidation and coercion,” Mr. Klingner advises.
TELLY AT THE READY
Employment of note: The Republican National Committee has hired Telly Lovelace as National Director of African American Initiatives and Media to engage both “black media and voters.” Mr. Lovelace is a veteran strategist who arrives from IR+ Media, a black-owned PR firm specializing in diversity and inclusion. He was previously a senior member of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s communications team and served in similar capacity for former Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri plus Reps. Michael Turner of Ohio and former Rep. Jerry Weller of Illinois.
The GOP plans a new diversity initiative to “expand and invest in a new generation of black, conservative Republicans,” according to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who says it’s a top priority, as is cultivating trust and authentic relationships in the black community.
POLL DU JOUR
• 49 percent of Democratic voters would like to see Hillary Clinton win the party’s presidential nomination; 46 percent of men and 52 percent of women the sample agree.
• 43 percent of Democrats overall would like to see Sen. Bernard Sanders win the nomination; 48 percent of men and 39 percent of women the sample agree.
• 41 percent of Republican voters would like to see Donald Trump win the party’s presidential nomination; 45 percent of men and 38 percent of women in the sample agree.
• 32 percent of Republicans overall would like to see Sen. Ted Cruz win the nomination; 30 percent of men and 34 percent of women in the sample agree.
• 20 percent of Republicans overall would like to see Gov. John Kasich win the nomination; 19 percent of men and 20 percent of women in the sample agree.
Source: A Pew Research Center poll of 1,787 registered U.S. voters conducted March 17-27.
• Hurrahs and hisses to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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